Music: Marshall Crenshaw joins the Smithereens for Scituate show

By Jay N. Miller/For The Patriot Ledger

Friday

Dec 14, 2018 at 2:21 AM

The Smithereens had a handful of hits in the late 1980s, as their gritty power pop found an audience that appreciated their classic garage rock sound with its punky intensity. Their star had faded with the arrival of grunge, in the 1990s, but they were enjoying a nice resurgence with the original lineup in the 2010s.

But somewhat unexpectedly, lead singer and songwriter Pat DiNizio, 62, died in December 2017. Amid their grief, the surviving band members played as part of a tribute concert to their departed friend, and a way to continue became obvious. The Smithereens continue to rock these days, but with guest vocalists, sometimes Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms, and sometimes songsmith Marshall Crenshaw.

Saturday night the Smithereens, with Marshall Crenshaw as guest vocalist, will perform at The River Club Music Hall in Scituate.

Crenshaw makes a lot of sense as an honorary Smithereen, since the singer/guitarist got his first musical fame as a member of the Beatlemania cast, playing John Lennon in the stage show. His music has also been compared to Buddy Holly, who he portrayed in the movie “La Bamba.” Crenshaw’s own tunes have always had a melodic Beatlesque sheen, and of course, the Smithereens always had a special affinity for 1960s rock in general, and The Beatles in particular.

In May of 2018, the Smithereens released “Covers,” an album of 22 of their favorite songs from other artists, including three Fab Four covers, as well as cuts from other ’60s icons like The Kinks and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. In past years, the Smithereens have done an updated version of The Who’s “Tommy” (2009), a cover of Meet the Beatles called “Meet the Smithereens” (2007), a collection of 1964-65 rarities entitled “B-Sides: The Beatles” (2008), and “Beatles ’64” (2011).

But that’s not to suggest the Smithereens don’t have plenty of their own material to play, including hits like “Blood and Roses,” “A Girl Like You,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” “Too Much Passion,” “In A Lonely Place,” and “Only A Memory.”

All in all, it’s not a bad track record for a trio of pals who graduated from New Jersey’s Carteret High School in 1975, and after years of playing in bands together, found their frontman in DiNizio in 1980, who lived in a neighboring town. By about 1987 The Smithereens were producing some of the decade’s best rock ‘n’ roll, and several of their songs ended up on movie soundtracks, too. It’s been a heady ride during the band’s 39 years on stage, and more recent highlights included opening Tom Petty’s tour in 2013, and playing the final celebratory closing night at the legendary Greenwich Village club, Kenny’s Castaways, in October of 2012.

We caught The Smithereens a couple of years ago at The Narrows Center in Fall River, with DiNizio still the lead singer, and they were as vital and galvanizing as they had been in their heyday. We mentioned that when we called Smithereens guitarist Jim Babjak this week, and he was in the midst of preparing his New Jersey home for one of his sons’ engagement party.

“I remember that Narrows Center show, and that big pole they had in the middle of the floor (since removed in last year’s renovations),” said Babjak. “That was a tough time for me, since my wife was dying of pancreatic cancer at the time, but I remember that night.”

When DiNizio died, the remaining Smithereens – Babjak, drummer Dennis Diken and bassist Mike Mesaros – all felt like they wanted to keep playing music together.

“You’ve got to remember, the three of us grew up together,” said Babjak. “I’d been friends with Dennis since I was about 13 years old. I walked into the first day of Earth Science class in 1971, and had a notebook with a picture of The Who. He came up and introduced himself and said he was a drummer, and did I want to play together. We started jamming, and the only thing we needed was a bass, so Dennis got his friend Mike to take up bass. We had played like that, with various singers, all through our high school years and beyond, until 1980 when we found Pat. His voice was just perfect for us, and of course, he wrote songs too.”

“This is our passion,” said Babjak. “We all decided we can’t just give it up, as much as we might miss Pat. Our fans overwhelmingly wanted us to continue. As it turned out, and that tribute concert proved, we know so many friends who could sing with us, Marshall Crenshaw, Robin Wilson, Ted Leo, and sometimes Susan Cowsill. It just became a matter of working out everybody’s schedules.”

Crenshaw is not only an old friend, but also a semi-secret collaborator.

“We go way back with Marshall,” said Babjak with a chuckle. “He played on our record “Especially For You,” credited as ‘Jerome Jerome,’ because he was under contract to another record company at the time. He also sings on ‘Strangers When We Meet,” and “White Castle Blues.” We’ve been friends with Marshall since the early ’80s. The other thing is, we didn’t want somebody who would sound exactly like Pat. We want singers who can capture the essence of the songs, but do them in their own way. In a sense, it’s been like starting over, but we knew we got to keep going, and I think we’ve given a lot of people pleasure by doing it.”

As dazzling as Crenshaw’s own music is, these shows do not include any of his tunes, and are predominantly Smithereens music. Even those beloved ’60s covers are kept to a minimum, although it’s a very good bet there will be at least one Beatles song performed.

“We used to fool around at soundcheck, still doing those songs from ‘Tommy,’ Babjak laughed. “The whole ‘Covers’ album was not planned, but it was all stuff that was, literally, just us goofing around in the studio. We were going to put that together when Pat was alive, so it was in the works for a while. We still have more songs like that which are unreleased. But, we’re going out as The Smithereens, and we won’t be doing any Marshall Crenshaw songs, and when we go out with Robin, we don’t play any Gin Blossoms songs. We have so many albums out – not counting our cover albums – we have plenty of music, and people want to hear their favorite Smithereens songs.”

“The Beatles records we did came at a time when no labels wanted us,” Babjak explained. “Doing those was so much fun, and the press we got was so positive.The New York Times did a two-page feature on ‘Meet the Smithereens.’ We have become aware over the last ten years that it is tough to do requests with our shows. There may be a small percentage of our hardcore fans that ask for something relatively obscure from our covers, but mainly people want to hear Smithereens music. We experiment a lot with our setlists, and will always do at least one Beatles tune.”

The side move into playing covers from their musical forebears came partly as a result of changing tastes reducing the Smithereens’ profile in the music world.

“Things were lagging for us after grunge hit,” Babjak noted. “It’s ironic, since Kurt Cobain had said we were a big influence, but once they hit it knocked us off of the charts. Now I guess our core audience has raised its kids, and have more time to get out, and sometimes now they bring their kids to the shows. The kids tell us they grew up around our music. People are even buying vinyl again – I never gave up on it. I love putting our new albums, in vinyl especially, and we’re committed to it.”

While DiNizio is perceived as the band’s main songwriter, Babjak pointed out that after 1994 all their songs were credited to the band as a whole, and he co-wrote a lot with DiNizio too. The Smithereens are still turning out new music of their own.

“We’ve written quite a few of them,” said Babjak. “Now and Then’ is one of mine, and we’re always working on new stuff. I have a day job in international banking – I’m a cubicle guy. But I’ll come in the studio after work for a couple hours each night, or work on weekends. My guitar is always in the trunk of my car. It’s been good to have the steady income during our slower times, but I feel like we’re in a transition period now, and promoters are getting used to the idea that we’re continuing.